The Coming Reset (Part 02)
Asahel Adams
Sunday Meeting 09/03/23
The Kingdom Imagined
Dream with me for a moment: imagine a nation without boundaries, sewn into pockets of every political sphere of the earth, so coordinated with the headship of the Spirit, with no rebellion or conflicts, that it would function as one man. Picture not just a few campuses throughout the United States in places such as Waco but innumerable locations spread across the globe where individuals can finally discover in Christ all that they previously sought in academia, economy, and nationalism.
Can you envision it? What is it like? Would these be like reservations among nations, where we would enjoy semi-autonomous liberties or self-government, where we would use none of the power of the State but create environments where the ethics and economy and education and life of Christ could flourish? Would it be a church, a movement? Or would it be a nation? I submit to you that it would be a nation. That's not my word: Peter would say, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (1 Pet. 2:9). He’s speaking of the church in the way God formerly spoke of Israel. Paul says, “You were once alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,” but he tells the believers of his day, “Now you’re not alienated from the commonwealth of Israel” (that is like saying the state, as in the commonwealth of Virginia). Instead, “Now you’re part of this nation, this predestined people, with a predestined purpose on the earth.” Peter combines spiritual and political terminology—a priesthood and a nation—in this stupendous statement. This isn’t the politics of deception or the politics of coercion—it’s the reign of God upon the earth. The Lord isn’t going to come back for a congregation or two in a building or two: He will return to a holy nation of hundreds of thousands, if not millions. How must we expand our minds, change our gears, and rethink our strategies to prepare for what's coming?
Babylon is shaking, but hidden in that tremendous confused system are countless Daniels, Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos. There's a remnant, and they're hearing the grinding of tectonic plates as the cultural tremors begin (Isa. 6:11-13; Isa. 17:6).
He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.” The words “Once more” signify the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that the unshakable may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. —Hebrews 12:26-28
I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe —Ephesians 1:18-19
So now through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God [in all its countless aspects] might now be made known [revealing the mystery] to the [angelic] rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. —Ephesians 3:10
Lord, where can we find the embodiment of Your divine Presence, Your kingdom of righteousness, and Your Holy mountain towering above all others? It’s not a physical location but a nation spread throughout the world, where leaders and officials from every corner of the globe come to seek guidance and say, “Teach us your ways! Can we learn from you?”
We don’t know what this kingdom will look like. We don’t know what exact form or configuration it may assume, but if you bear a little folly, I can almost imagine having conversations with world leaders in the future where we would ask them to give us a reservation, a land, sizable tracts, maybe hundreds of thousands of acres, where we can live unto the Lord as He wills. We will explain to these host nations the jobs that will come to their areas, the education, the tourism, the prosperity, the peace. Then we would basically ask them, “Can you form some alliance with us, some agreement where we have semi-autonomous control over this realm? We would pay you a flat tax or do something that would benefit the host nation, some kind of contractural agreement.” And no, I don’t anticipate that this is going to be an abiding, permanent solution. In the end, the two witnesses will lie dead in the streets. But I believe some great revelation of Zion is going to emerge before that time of final trouble and persecution.
The Kingdom’s Response to Today’s Troubling Events
As I mentioned in the beginning, Peter says, “The heavens will receive Jesus until the time of the restoration of all things spoken of by the prophets” (Acts 3:21).
What have the prophets foretold?
Isaiah lived in a day of wickedness and apostasy. He protested the transgression of Israel, describing his contemporaries as more ignorant than beasts of burden. “For the ox knows his master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand. Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children of depravity! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him” (Isa. 1:3-4).
Isaiah likens rebellious Israel to a harlot, flirting as an exhibitionist, bedecked with the merchandise of trade (Isa. 3:16-26). He says Zion will become desolate (the very word Jesus later used) (Matt. 23:38; Luke 13:35). “Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you—a desolation demolished by strangers. And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city besieged. Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom; we would have resembled Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:7-9; see also: Rom. 9:29)
Isaiah prophesied that Zion would fail when her mighty men, judges, seers, councilors, craftsmen, and learned were exiled from her midst and carried away captive (Isa. 3:1-3). And this is spiritually symbolic and indicative of what will happen to spiritual Zion, which is the church. The prophet begged the Lord to tell him how long he was to proclaim Zion’s impending doom, and the Lord responded, “Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord had removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land” (Isa. 6:11-12).
But God kept speaking to this Messianic prophet that He would reserve a remnant, “And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land” (Isa. 6:13).
This seed refers to the promise made to Abraham, unto Isaac, the child of promise. This is the seed whom Christ was, and this is the seed that is the church, as Paul tells the Galatians. This seed is the destined people, the corporate elected people of God that Isaiah is referring to. The majority are going to reject the truth; the majority are going to fall away. But even a tenth is a sufficient remnant to keep the seed alive in the ground and bring forth what God has promised.
“In that day, the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain, gathering the grain in their arms—as when someone gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the Lord, the God of Israel. In that day, people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. —Isaiah 17:4-6
So Isaiah is saying that God is going to allow Israel’s apostasy to release judgment on her that wipes the harvest out, that ends the harvest. But although he says that an enemy is going to take almost all of the olives, yet two or three, or maybe even four or five, olives are going to be left in the very tips of the tree. This indicates that the extremity, the extreme expressions on the outer tree of Christianity, is where there will be a remnant. So, the Lord showed through Isaiah that a remnant, like “four or five” olives on the top of a bare tree, would remain because most would be carried away “with a mighty captivity into exile” (Isa. 22:17). But all this warning of doom, which spoke both to natural Israel and spiritual Israel, sets the stage for God’s great restoration of His spiritual nation. He describes a time when those “gleanings from the field” and those few “olives in the top of the tree” will rise and grow to become the fullest expression of Zion, His covenant people, which the world has ever seen.
Isaiah 49
Thus says the LORD, “In a favorable time I have answered You, and in a day of salvation I have helped You; and I will keep You and give you for a covenant of the people, to restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; saying to those who are bound, ‘Go forth,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
“Along the roads they will feed, and their pasture will be on all bare heights. They will not hunger or thirst, nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; for He who has compassion on them will lead them and will guide them to springs of water.
These are the springs that Jesus spoke of to the woman at the well in John 4, and that He spoke of again in John 7, when He said to anyone who thirsts, let him come and drink. He was speaking of the Holy Spirit. He said the famine for the word of God, when those who are hungry wander from north to south and from east to west, will be broken in Zion.
So there’s hope! This devastated Christianity is going to come back with greater joy and glory than ever imagined, all from the gleanings, from the few olives at the tops of the trees.
“I will make all My mountains a road, and My highways will be raised up. Behold, these will come from afar; And lo, these will come from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim.”
Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted.
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me. Your builders hurry; your destroyers and devastators will depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around; all of them gather together, they come to you. As I live,” declares the LORD, “You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride.
“For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land—surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you will be far away. The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too cramped for me; make room for me that I may live here.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children and am barren, an exile and a wanderer? And who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone; from where did these come?’”
Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations and set up My standard to the peoples; and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders. Kings will be your guardians, and their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth and lick the dust of your feet; and you will know that I am the LORD; those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.” —Isaiah 49:8-23
Isaiah 51
“Listen to Me, all who hope for deliverance—all who seek the LORD! Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined. Yes, think about Abraham, your ancestor, and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation. Abraham was only one man when I called him. But when I blessed him, he became a great nation.” The LORD will comfort Israel again and have pity on her ruins. Her desert will blossom like Eden, her barren wilderness like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found there. Songs of thanksgiving will fill the air.
“Listen to Me, My people. Hear Me, Israel, for My law will be proclaimed, and My justice will become a light to the nations. My mercy and justice are coming soon. My salvation is on the way. My strong arm will bring justice to the nations. All distant lands will look to Me and wait in hope for My powerful arm. Look up to the skies above, and gaze down on the earth below. For the skies will disappear like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing. The people of the earth will die like flies, but My salvation lasts forever. My righteous rule will never end!
“Listen to Me, you who know right from wrong, you who cherish My law in your hearts. Do not be afraid of people’s scorn, nor fear their insults. For the moth will devour them as it devours clothing. The worm will eat at them as it eats wool. But My righteousness will last forever. My salvation will continue from generation to generation.”
Wake up, wake up, O LORD! Clothe yourself with strength! Flex your mighty right arm!
Rouse Yourself as in the days of old when You slew Egypt, the dragon of the Nile. Are You not the same today, the One who dried up the sea, making a path of escape through the depths so that Your people could cross over? Those who have been ransomed by the LORD will return. They will enter Jerusalem singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be filled with joy and gladness.
“I, yes I, am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear?” —Isaiah 51:1-12
The Lord is speaking through Isaiah to His people, but then He is speaking to Himself, to the God who called the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Isaiah 54—The Future Glory of Zion, The Church, God’s Bride
“Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD.
“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband—the LORD Almighty is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth. The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God.
“For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. [This describes the church losing her covenant relationship, her sanctity with God. Her lack of sanctification broke off the marriage. Just as when man was divorced from God in the Garden of Eden, so the church was divorced when she married the State in the Constantinian Synthesis. But this describes the reunion.] In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer. [He hid His presence, the power of His Spirit, from them. That is what His face represents.]
“To Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. [He’s saying that this separation, this church without the face and presence of God, will never occur again in history once the restoration comes about. Jesus predicted this separation when He said, “You will not see My face until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name and authority of God.’” But once God’s people are restored from that place of separation from the presence of God, the Lord vows this will never happen again, just as He swore that the floodwaters will never again cover the earth.] So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli.
“I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. [We know what these precious stones are, don’t we? For Peter said, “We all as lively stones are being built together.”] All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace. In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you. If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you.
“See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from Me,” declares the LORD. —Isaiah 54:1-17
The apostle Paul shows us unequivocally that these Isaiah prophecies were intended for Zion. But Zion is the church. He shows us that the church is the seed still in the ground. That’s why he says, “You are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” That word “descendants” is “seed.”
But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. For it is written,
“REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND.”
And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. —Galatians 4:26-29
This is the same Jerusalem Hebrews speaks of: “You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Heb. 12:22).
Isaiah says: “Now it will come about that in the last days that the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it” (Isa. 2:2). This refers to nationalities, the multi-ethnic plurality of expression that will be evidenced in Zion. Evidently, Peter didn’t feel that this had happened in its full expression yet, but that when it did, the foundation stone would become the capstone, and the Lord would return. This allusion to the restoration or the return of Jesus is tied to Paul when he said: “Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to our God and Father when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:24-25), and He tells us that the last enemy is death. The church is Christ’s feet, the one Body of Christ, and rule, power, authority, and dominion denote wrestling with an imperfect flesh and an imperfect church as orders of authority help us to keep our commitment to bring everything into subjection to Christ. The head, being Jesus, is in heaven, and His feet are planted upon the earth, forming that elevator shaft, Jacob’s ladder, that connects the realm of heaven with the realm of earth. The church has been given the power to reign until He comes, the power of the Holy Spirit. So the Lord is going to return, and He’s going to put an end to rule, power, authority, and dominion when the church brings all the enemies of truth, all the weapons of the devil, under dominion to Christ’s feet, which is His humanity expressed here on earth. So when we find victory over all the schemes and mechanisms of a wiley devil, that’s when the capstone is going to return with shouts of, “God bless it!”
When we bring everything into subjection to Christ and the last enemy is vanquished, there will be no need for rule, power, authority, or dominion. Men and women will not submit one to another; disciples and elders will not submit one to another. We will all be the children of God. These expressions of authority and submission are necessary in a fallen world with fallen people as we bring all things into subjection to Christ. But when He returns, all that will be gone, and it’s going to be like the Garden of Eden again. Every time we gain a corporate victory over a cultural sin, another enemy is put under Christ’s feet, and the return of the Lord gets closer.
When the spiritual conquest of the church over the powers of the evil one is complete, then a building project that began with a precious cornerstone will culminate with a crowning capstone as Jesus returns amid shouts of “God bless it! Grace to it; grace to it!” (Zech. 4:7).
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all humanity together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. —Isaiah 40:4-6
In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul says, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete” (2 Cor. 10:5-6). This idea again is that of the church reigning over the power of the enemy, bringing even arguments and thoughts captive under the feet of the church, which is the body of Christ, so that the Lord may return. God will not punish the sinful until the righteous have been separated through sanctification from them. This is similar to the story of Lot being called out of Sodom so that the judgment could be released. Once the righteous are completely sanctified and separated, the evil will receive the punishment it deserves.
God has promised “to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:9-10). We are involved in a cosmic struggle, and every kingdom of this world, every state, is an embodiment, an incarnation, of the corporate revelation of the power of satan. But the church is God’s one project; it is His one corporate answer—not to individuals, but to principalities and powers. The church is supposed to be the place where love triumphs over brute force, where all the things attempted by the institutions and states of man are achieved, but without the compulsion, the fear, the manipulation, the evil, of the evil one. So it’s God’s big answer to all the kingdoms of this world that lie under the control of the evil one. He doesn’t say that this wisdom will be demonstrated in a forgotten street corner; it will be demonstrated to principalities and powers—the spiritual forces warring against Yahweh, as seen in Daniel. And the final act will come when the church corporately brings to naught all the power of the enemy through its corporate expression.
This has not yet happened on the level that the apostles described, for the writer of Hebrews says, “Yet all things are not presently subjected to him” (Heb. 2:8). That's our duty: to bring everything—education, essentials of life, our relationships, our marriages, our families, even addictions, vices and temptations—under the dominion of Christ. This won’t be done by compulsion; that’s Statism; this will be accomplished by the power of the Spirit and love; that’s the church.
“In the dispensation of the fullness of times, He will bring under one head all things that are in Christ…” Is that where He ends the sentence? No, he goes on, “Things in heaven and things on Earth” (Eph. 1:10). It's all-encompassing—it’s everything. Some Christians are willing to contemplate a kingdom that is of strictly heavenly minded things. But Paul says the kingdom will be things in heaven and things on earth.
The Call of Joseph
So, what I’m saying is that the church will not exit Babylon so long as she is comfortable and at peace there. The collapse of Western Civilization will prove the catalyst for the church’s exodus and final restoration. When she is driven out of Egypt, then she will accept the authority of the Spirit and begin to discover these epic promises predicting Zion’s final revelation and worldwide maturity. However, God sends a remnant of the remnant ahead—a small group to do the work of Joseph and Moses—the work of filling storehouses, rediscovering God’s patterns and providing a spiritual sanctuary, building a spiritual ark for the approaching storms.
He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself was laid in irons; until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.
The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples, and set him free. He made him lord of his house and ruler over all his possessions, to imprison his princes at will, that he might teach his elders wisdom. Israel also came into Egypt; thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And He caused His people to be very fruitful, and made them stronger than their adversaries. —Psalm 105:16-24
Before God allowed the great collapse to come upon His people, the famine of that day, Joseph was going through some personal things and preparing the way.
I vividly remember when my mother, Brother Tsafrir, Brother Abraham, and I visited Brother TW Barnes, a highly respected prophet of the United Pentecostal organization, back in 2003. During our visit, Brother Barnes shared with us about his calling to the ministry. He recounted a time when he was just sixteen years old, sitting on a grassy hill in Minden, Louisiana. He had a vision of a large, gift-wrapped box descending from the sky. The Lord said to him, “I have called you and given you the gift of prophecy, to be a mouthpiece for My people.”
“That’s what I’ve been—I’ve been a prophet,” he said. “But Brother Adams is an apostle. God called him with the call of Joseph to be a blessing to his brothers.” The UPC doesn’t use terms like “apostle,” and Brother Barnes had never heard of the prophecy given over my father nearly thirty years before in Phoenix, Arizona. But that prophecy in Phoenix gave the mission not only to my dad but to this whole movement that he spearheaded. We were given the mandate of a Joseph ministry, called to the wilderness and waste places, but ultimately, to fill storehouses with lost truths—truths and patterns that would help our brothers survive the tribulations approaching.
Joseph was rejected. He looked like he had lost his way; it looked like evil had triumphed over good and killed the dream inside. He was lied about and hated, but he served as a type of Jesus, wearing the coat of many nations—of many colors. Mistreated in Egypt, he was thrown in prison, and it took a famine to get him out of that dungeon and into the courts of Pharaoh. Then he married a gentile bride and, together, they brought salvation and food in a time of hunger—not just for his brothers but for the whole world. This is a type of what we as Christians are called to be—to build storehouses, as the prophecies have said.
Those seven years of plenty can be more discouraging than the seven years of famine because you start asking yourself, “Why am I doing this? What's this all about?” The Lord says there is something coming that you can't even get your mind around at the present time. Stay faithful!
The difference between who we were fifty years ago and who we are right now is no smaller than the difference between what we are now and what I'm describing in the future. People get ready! You may say, “We can’t do that,” but that’s the exciting part! God is going to do it through us and in spite of us.
Don’t you want to be a part of that?
When COVID shut the world down, I said, “Famines have a way of ejecting Josephs from the prisons where they’ve been hiding. The troubles that are coming on the earth are going to bring the body of Christ out of the dungeon hall.” The pharaoh of Joseph’s day is an example of one of the kings of the earth turning to Zion and saying, “Teach us your ways.”
It's crucial that we pray and stay informed about the current political climate. It's evident that the very foundations of Babylon are crumbling around us. Nonetheless, we're not alone as Christians; there are many others who remain devoted to Yahweh and refuse to bend their knees to Baal. In fact, as we speak, these worshippers are taking a stand at school meetings, objecting to the propaganda that's being fed to their children. Soon, they’re going to hear a voice saying, “Come out of her, my people.” There are hundreds of thousands of Mennonites and Amish wondering why they don't experience the power of God like their Anabaptist forefathers once did, and yet there are some already hearing the voice of Yahweh in places like Wisconsin.
Let the Voice go forth to the ends of the earth!
“Well, Joseph,” you will say, “you're too small; you're just one man.” But God will save by many or by few. “Joseph, you're too weak.” But God says, “I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name. I will open, and none can shut; I will shut, and none will open!” “But Joseph, you don't have enough time.” But the Lord will do a quick work; for Him, “a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8).
In Revelation, the church of the last day is described as the “sons of fresh anointing,” spoken of by Zechariah (Zech. 4:14). These “two witnesses” “stand upon the earth,” representing the gentile and Jewish—cultivated and wild—olive branches of the faith. The ministry of these witnesses comes in two phases: first, they will operate in unparalleled power, glory and witness. Second, they will suffer persecution and the great tribulation to reveal that love is stronger than death and that the church has overcome the fear of death, by which the devil holds all humanity subject and in bondage (Rev. 11:3-12; Heb. 2:14). Before the great tribulation, the church, as these two witnesses, will experience unprecedented restoration and miraculous power. This glory of Zion will trigger satan’s wrath because the devil himself realizes that his time is short. Why does he think his time is short? Because the church’s witness in that final restoration reason will prove so effective as to guarantee satan’s total defeat across the entire earth if Zion were permitted to continue (Rev. 12:12). That’s what we’ve got to be anticipating. Until the church as restored body, a holy nation on the face of the earth, until that reality is making the devil scared and making him believe that his time is running out, we haven’t yet seen the restoration as it’s been promised.
In short, we will see a great reunion that precipitates a great outpouring of spiritual power. Just as on the day of Pentecost, when the church becomes of one mind and one accord, great power will fall from heaven. There will be no more denominations, sects, or divisions. The Holy Spirit will sovereignly “bring together all things that are in Christ under one head.” We will witness tears of reconciliation and sweet embraces as long-lost brothers reconnect. The networking of Christ’s Body will surpass all imagination. Those we once considered enemies will prove to be our friends. God’s restoration of Zion will be more brilliant than rubies and more magnificent than the courts of Solomon, an awe-inspiring display for the world to see.
Nations will see [Zion’s] righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow. You will be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, a royal diadem in the palm of your God. No longer will you be called Forsaken, nor your land named Desolate; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be His bride. —Isaiah 62:1-5
As the trouble shakes you up and makes you nervous at night, just remember: as darkness increases, the light is going to shine forth all the brighter. “At evening time, there will be light, and on that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem” (Zech. 14:7-8). These are the same living waters that Ezekiel is speaking of in the final temple. “Those who dwell in the valley of the shadow of death, upon them a light has dawned” (Isa. 9:2; Matt. 4:16). So the darkness is scary, but it predicts the emergence of a bright beacon that is going to become a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.
As the church mourns in Babylon, we, the pioneers, are filled with anticipation for the approaching exodus towards Judea. Hailing from Europe, we are the forerunners who have set our sights on the west lands of Palestine, where we tirelessly work to drain swamps, build roads, plant crops and trees. Our gaze returns again and again to the horizon, waiting and watching for the remnant's return. Our efforts are met with mockery and marginalization by those who still cling to life in Europe such as it was before World War II, and in Babylon today. To them, our aspirations seem foolish and naive, but we continue to toil away in our Zionist camps, driven by a dream that we cannot ignore or escape. The dreamer still lives, even though He may be in the dungeon or in the swamps of Palestine.
In 1948, after enduring immense tribulation, those who once could not submit or find even the slightest hope of unity looked to the shores of a better country and the promise of their own culture and land. The rebirth of natural Israel predicts the rebirth of spiritual Israel. In like manner, spiritual Zion will once again consume the hearts and minds of God’s people. It will be a dream they cannot awake from. Seekers will come from east and west, driven by the terror of Babylon’s collapse. They will bless the names and memories of those who gave their lives to rebirth a nation from a desert before the world turned against the church. We are those people. These seekers will come to dwell in houses they did not build. Let us build those houses. They will feast on vineyards they did not plant. Let us be busy planting those vineyards. They will drink from wells they did not dig. Let us continue digging those wells. And we, the Halutzim (meaning the Aliyah Pioneers), will be there, or at least our children and grandchildren will be there, to welcome them to the shores of God’s country, a spiritual place, a holy nation, not a geographical region.
Ours is the task of pilgrimage, pioneering a way through the wilderness, forging a walkable course of obedience back to the patterns of Yahweh and of life. Blessed are those who believe but who have not seen. Blessed are those who leave Babylon before the new Pharaoh ascends, before the bricks and whips and plagues and deaths of the firstborn. Blessed are those who prepare the way of the Lord. We are the voice of those shouting in the desert: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert” (Isa. 40:3).
But this won’t be a desert forever.
Isaiah 35
The wilderness and the desert will be glad, [That’s how Palestine felt when the first Aliyah pioneers started coming over] and the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and shouts of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.
Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, but He will save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the Arabah. The scorched land will become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, its resting place, grass becomes reeds and rushes.
A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up on it; these will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the LORD will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. —Isaiah 35:1-10
God help us; help us to fix our eyes on these eternal promises, promises hidden in Christ’s wisdom and God’s plan for ages immemorial, but that are now beginning to be revealed in our time.